Sifu’s Top 7 Undervalued Cards

Sitting on a bit of coin and wondering what cards would be good investments? Well, if you’re a degenerate gambler like me, investing in gaming NFTs, here are my best guesses.

My choices are based on what I think could be relevant for years to come in changing metas. I’m typically looking for cards that have the potential to go from a few dollars to more than $10 (10x - 50x).

Note, this is not financial advice and the value of all these cards could go to zero tomorrow. Nobody knows.

In no specific order: My 7 picks for best long-term price appreciation

1. The Trial Begins

Set: Trial of the Gods

Meteorite price as of this writing: $0.50

Meteorite print: 25.000

Favorite use: BWD, Rockdrake, Dralamar

Anybody that has played Magic the Gathering knows that picking cards from your deck is extremely powerful and will always be relevant in different metas.

It’s best in combo decks and has seen the most use when Dralamar was a powerhouse. The downside is that you can only pick domain specific cards and creatures. However, it’s neutral and creates so much consistency in your deck that I always do my best to make room for it in some of my lists.

Currently my favorite place to use it is in my BWD list. 80% of the time you’ll use it to find your Siren of the Grave. The games you lose as BWD are overwhelmingly because your Sirens and draw are in the bottom 15 cards. With this card you have 3 draws to get your Siren, drastically improving your odds. In control matchups where fatigue becomes the dominant win condition, and getting Siren early is not that important, I normally just discard Trial when playing Siren to not get closer to fatigue.

2. Portal Wrangler

Set: Genesis

Meteorite price as of this writing: $3

Meteorite print: 29.000

Favorite use: Clone Magic, Control Magic

It’s hard to play this card well. The more experience you have, the more you release its potential. It’s better on average than a 3/4, draw a card. Therefore you can often just play it in a control deck.

Use cases: Against War? Drop it after you play your relic removal to gain another Goblin. Against Heirloom? Use it to gain another Gleamweaver. Against Control Light? Free Embalmer, yes please.

Or use it to gain another Moramag for crazy value or after playing your Ekrileth (note, you get the buffed version of Ekrileth, so when you play it again, you can often get 15/15 or more).

Other niche cases are when your opponent buffs up their last played creature and you copy it. Could be a 3/5 Dagan or Tavern Brawler with Another Round! on it.

You always have to remember the last creature played, which could be several turns ago. Just always keep your eyes out for opportunities and you’ll be surprised how versatile and strong this card is.

It’s also the key card in the fun OTK-deck, Clone Magic.

3. Armor Lurker

Set: Divine Order

Meteorite price as of this writing: $1.4

Meteorite print: 44.000

Favorite use: Hidden Rush Deception, Control Deception (basically all deception lists)

Okay I know what you’re thinking. How is this card undervalued? It’s the most expensive rare from the Divine Order set! But hear me out.

This card is arguably the best 2-drop in the game. Only rivaled by Underbrush Boar. Like the boar, you can play it in any Deception deck, that’s how good it is.

In control, it almost always trades 2 for 1 against aggro. If you have this turn 1 or 2 against aggro and you have Rapture Dance ready on 6 mana, you win.

The worst case scenario is your opponent plays Canopy Barrage into it, or trades with Boar. And even then, it’s an equal trade (mana and cards).

Compared to other removal spells, you don’t have to have it in hand. You can put it down whenever you have mana and let it sit in stealth until you need it. 95% of the time, you will not use it to go face if you’re playing control so be patient.

It’s also worth noting that you can hide it again with Orfeo’s Distraction (God Power) if, for example, you’re playing against death and want to avoid their Blood Ritual God Power. Just remember it will unstealth next turn and have zero armor.

In aggro, it’s a stable as it has the Guild tag, really strong stats if you include the armor, and the option to restealth after pumping big damage with a few knives. AND your opponent can’t even remove it with a Tracking Bolt or Bar Fight or any other 1-mana AoE because it will still have 1 armor at that point. Crazy.

4. Vow of Champions

Set: Trial of the Gods

Meteorite price as of this writing: $1.36

Meteorite print: 25.000

Favorite use: Control Deception, Relic War, Control Magic, Dralamar

Cards that give you a lot of options are generally very strong. The options are not great, but the versatility makes up for it. This card will always be useful to some extent. I mostly use it in control decks that are lacking healing like Magic or Deception, but often, you also use it as a clutch removal, surprise lethal, or just to dig for your win conditions.

It’s also excellent in Dralamar decks since you can cycle when you get the combo off, but also have the option to heal or remove in the early game. Those 4 health have won me surprisingly many games.

Another interesting use case was when relic war was big in the meta before the Unrestrained Power nerf. Here the 4th option, gaining 7 Favor, which is almost never picked, was a very good backup to make sure your opponent couldn’t get to the relic removal in sanctum before you.

I think versatile cards like these will always find a place in the shifting meta and therefore with its low supply, can see good price appreciation.

5. Cobra Scepter

Set: Divine Order

Meteorite price as of this writing: $0.03

Meteorite print: 100.000

Favorite use: Mill deception

This might be a bit controversial because it’s not a card you see played. However, at 1-mana, it has a lot of potential. If mill deception ever becomes a popular deck or some new cards that enable a lot of card draw get released, the super low price of this card could go vertical. I think it’s only a matter of time before this card will fit in a meta deck, and if that happens, we are talking easily 20x price appreciation.

6. Dimension Door

Set: Genesis

Meteorite price as of this writing: $1.36

Meteorite print: 29.000

Favorite use: Clone Magic, OTK FOU-magic

Cycle cards will always find a place in combo decks. You want to get through your deck as fast as possible to find your combo pieces.

However, Magic has a bunch of cycle cards. Levitate, Seeing Stone and now Reject Dogma. Dimension Door stands out though. First off, it’s a Genesis card. Second, the reduced mana on your drawn card is actually useful. In combo decks, you want two things to help get your combo pieces: More card draw and more mana. Dimension Door gives you both most of the time.

Be aware of the requirements that the drawn card is only reduced if cost is lower than your current unlocked mana gems. That means, if you have multiple cards to draw with in the early game, hold on to dimension door a few turns to maximize your chances to reduce something.

7. Counterfeit

Set: Divine Order

Meteorite price as of this writing: $1.11

Meteorite print: 24.000

Favorite use: Control Deception

Any top deck revolving around relics? Well then this card will be auto included in your control list. It’s a unique effect compared to other relic removals since you can steal a really powerful relic, and if that happens you pretty much win the game. That way it’s a card that is not very likely to have issues with power creep in future expansions. Yes, there will be more cards with relic removal. Will they steal the opponents relic? Very unlikely.

Current best case scenarios are against Zombie Death where if you steal an early Necroscepter or Skull Scepter against Heirloom Death, you’re overwhelmingly favored to win.

It’s also great because it’s never a completely dead card. You can choose to cycle it against decks that are not running relics or if you’re desperate to find some outs.

That’s it this time around. All these cards are unique in some way that make them unlikely to be irrelevant even after many more expansions have been printed. In a few years, we can go back and see how my guesses worked out. Maybe there’s a lucky 100x somewhere. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I own multiple copies of all these cards.